A new factory producing green electricity from cider fruit is to be created in Herefordshire.

Coressence Ltd has been formed with the support of the Herefordshire Cider Fruit Growers Association to produce green electricity from the oversupply of cider fruit and save 360,000 trees from the chop.

The initiative will see fruit trees that would otherwise have been grubbed, saved from being felled.

As well as converting cider fruit into pure alcohol or bioethanol from the excess supply of apples, the Herefordshire plant will be designed to take in other-sugar producing crops.

Katie Eastaugh, secretary of Coressence Ltd, said: "This ability will not only help secure a supply of electricity but enable the plant to run for 12 months of the year taking crops as they are harvested.

"Coressence will not be locating the bio-ethanol plant - that will be the responsibility of the company who licenses the project."

The initiative will offer new rural and farming employment opportunities, help retain the landscape and also benefit wildlife.

The factory will use the 40,000 tonnes of redundant cider fruit and covert into pure alcohol - bio-ethanol.

The bio-ethanol will then be combusted in a gas turbine heat and power unit, and the electricity exported to the grid.

It is thought the electricity produced could power a small town, such as Ledbury in Herefordshire.

Because this electricity is deemed to be 'green' it will attract a subsidy of £30/MWh plus the wholesale price of renewable power, making the process economically viable.

Ms Eastaugh added: "There is a huge oversupply of cider fruit in Herefordshire of about 40,000 tonnes and unless new markets are found, the trees will be removed.

"They are part of the wonderful landscape of Herefordshire and to take the chainsaw to them would dramatically change an important feature of our rural heritage."

She said some orchards produced 20 tonnes of fruit an acre and that volume could not be left to rot on the ground.

Unfortunately cider fruit could not be used for apple juice or other apple products as it was bitter and inedible, she said.